Tata Nexon EV Driving Experience

Start the Nexon EV via the start/stop button and you don’t hear a sound. Turn the rotary knob to D and there is an eerie silence as you move forward. Coming from an IC engined car, this will take getting used to. Once you start driving, you realise how instant the throttle response is. There is no lag whatsoever, power delivery is smooth and linear. It feels right at home the city and navigating it through traffic is a breeze. There isn’t a punch in Drive mode as such, so to make things spicier, slot the knob into Sport. The surge of power is incredible and it will surely put a smile on your face. In fact at times, you do feel a bit of torque steer. Try shifting to S mode as you are driving in D and you immediately see the difference in performance. Also, another thing I noticed in Sport mode is that the Nexon EV continues to accelerate for a second or so even after I leave the accelerator pedal. The Nexon EV also comes with regenerative braking. In this, the car decelerates when you let go of the throttle sending energy to the battery. This kind of driving style takes getting used to if you are new to driving an EV, but once you get used to it, it is fun. Plus the regeneration charges your battery increasing the range.

The Nexon EV also comes with Hill Ascend Assist and Hill Descent Assist. To see how this works, we were taken to the Tata Motors test track for a demonstration drive. While going up an incline, the Hill Ascend Assist takes longer than expected to respond making the Nexon roll back a bit before it kicks in. But once it gets going, it climbs steadily. While going down a decline, the Hill Descent Assist rolls down at a speed of 20kph. We also got a chance to sample the water wading capabilities at the test track. I have to admit that I was concerned about the Mumbai floods in the monsoons, but driving through 300 mm depth of water put away any doubts that I had. The Nexon EV just sailed through without any hiccup. And you don’t to worry about water getting into the exhaust pipe because well, there is no exhaust pipe.

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